Sunday 9 September 2012 15.09 EDT
First published on Sunday 9 September 2012 15.09 EDT

When is a coup not a coup? This vexed question has been exercising the citizens of the Maldives ever since their first democratically elected president, Mohamed Nasheed, was driven from office in February amid a violent rampage by police mutineers. His successor, former vice-president Mohamed Waheed, claims to hold power legitimately. Opponents including members of Nasheed's Maldivian Democratic party (MDP) say Waheed now oversees a "police state" and warn of deepening political rifts and ever greater human rights abuses.

The crisis that erupted in the Indian Ocean republic eight months ago caused widespread alarm. Nasheed, a former political prisoner, was voted into office in 2008 after 30 years of autocratic rule by Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. The result was widely hailed as a triumph for democracy. But the old regime took defeat badly. Resentment turned into open revolt after Nasheed ordered the detention of the chief justice of the criminal court, who was suspected of obstructing investigations into bribery and corruption allegations involving former regime figures.

When disgruntled police officers joined anti-Nasheed street demonstrators and religious non-governmental organisations in demanding the president's removal on the night of 6-7 February, Maldives army chiefs hesitated, then refused to intervene. According to a report, Arrested Democracy, by three independent experts commissioned by the MDP, vice-president Waheed sent a message of encouragement to the mutineers while his brother entered the state television offices and informed staff that Waheed was now commander-in-chief.

Initially, Nasheed was said to have resigned voluntarily. But the independent report describes a dramatic scene in which Nasheed, inside army headquarters, is surrounded by "around 80 military personnel", most of whom want him to quit and are saying the only way he can stay in power is to use lethal forces against the mutineers. To his credit, Nasheed says he will not give the order to open fire. "At this point it seems that the president realised he had no other option but to resign, and he pleaded for his safety and for the safety of his family," the report states.

Hours later, freed from the glowering presence of hostile military and police, Nasheed stated publicly that his resignation was made under duress and called for early elections to resolve the crisis. But what followed instead, as Waheed established himself in power, was a harsh police crackdown that has now been chronicled by Amnesty International.

"Police have carried out beatings, arbitrary detentions, attacks on the injured in hospitals and torture, yet not a single criminal case has been filed against those responsible," Amnesty investigator Abbas Faiz said. People were specifically targeted for their political affiliation, he said. Several horrifying cases are documented, including an attack on Mariya Ahmed Didi, an MP. "Police and military officers forcefully opened my eyelids ... They sprayed pepper spray directly into my eye. Then they did the same with the other eye ... At one point when they were beating me one of them shouted: 'Is she still not dead?'' she said.

Alarmed by Nasheed's abrupt departure and the violent aftermath, Britain, the Commonwealth, the US, the UN and India backed an independent investigation and called for fresh elections. This investigation, conducted mostly by government appointees and known as the Commission of National Inquiry (Coni), reported last week. Surprisingly, it concluded that the change of president was "legal and constitutional" and that Nasheed, in effect, had brought it on himself by his own actions.

"The resignation of President Nasheed was voluntary and of his own free will. It was not caused by any illegal coercion or intimidation ... With regard to the idea that there was a coup d'etat, nothing in the Maldives changed in constitutional terms," the Coni report stated. Waheed's succession to the presidency was "legitimate" and "proper". In one concession to the opposition, the report called for a full inquiry into police brutality.

The Coni report has caused predictable outrage, provoking new demonstrations last week. At a rally of 3,000 protesters in the capital, Male, Nasheed repeated his demand for early elections. "Now we have a very awkward situation and in many ways very comical, where toppling a government by brutal force is taken as a reasonable course of action," he said.

In a shameful bit of back-tracking, Britain, the US and the Commonwealth all issued statements welcoming the Coni report, calling for dialogue – and dropping their previous support for early polls. Waheed is now saying fresh elections will not take place until November next year. This approach appears to contravene the Commonwealth's 1995 declaration in Milbrook, New Zealand, that efforts should be made "to encourage the restoration of democracy within a reasonable time frame" when a government has been overthrown. "The Coni report came as a shock to many of the people who witnessed the events of 7 February ... So many established facts were ignored in the report, material and evidence of vital significance has been disregarded," said a prominent Nasheed supporter who asked not to be identified for fear of official reprisals. "It was some high ranking police officers and some [military] people who helped to bring this coup. Public are calling them baaghees (traitors) … Today Maldives is a police state."